Hung Ca Company: Milestones on the Path of Development

Starting with 250 hectares of farms and US$45 million of investment capital, after 10 years of development, Hung Ca Co., Ltd has grown to become a leading seafood producer, processor and exporter in Vietnam. This impressive achievement came from the effort of the entire staff, particularly huge contributions of Mr Tran Van Hung, President of the Board of Members and CEO of the company. As the first person to study and farm catfish in ponds instead of cages as earlier, Hung Ca played a part in raising Vietnam’s catfish output from 200,000 tonnes a year to 1.2 million tonnes. The farming area in Dong Thap Muoi region has been expanded.

 

In 1979, Hung, a founder of Hung Ca Company, started to raise fish in Hong Ngu Canal in Dong Thap province, the starting point for his large-scale aquaculture ventures later. After only 10 years, with his expansive farm, his production output reached 70 tonnes a year, mainly supplied the domestic market. In 1992, he began to rear fish in nine big cages, which provided 100-300 tonnes of aquatic materials for processing plants and gradually professionalised farming and production stages according to international standards.

 

In 2003 when Dong Thap province advocated developing aquaculture in the mudflats, Hung Ca invested to dredge 34 hectares of land in Tan Thanh and Tan Binh communes, Thanh Binh district to expand its farming area. Besides, Hung Ca improved water resources and adopted modern farming methods to ensure fish quality for export and lower production costs.

 

The success in farming and supplying high-quality raw materials raised its reputation in the industry and enabled him to reach export markets. In 2006, seeing a high export demand, he founded Hung Ca Company with 250 hectares of farms with eight ponds in Hong Ngu, Tam Nong and Thanh Binh, capable of supplying 50,000 tonnes of fish a year.

 

Up to now, with a business investment of VND569 billion, Hung Ca has possessed more than 750 hectares of farming areas, including 420 ponds in five districts of Hong Ngu, Tam Nong, Thanh Binh, Cao Lanh and Tan Hong in Dong Thap province. These impressive figures made Hung Ca the largest fish producer in the Mekong Delta by area. The company supplies over 125,000 tonnes of fish to its three processing plants.

 

In addition to expanding farming areas, to enhance the export value of pangasius, since its inception, Hung Ca embarked on building aquatic processing plants with a yearly capacity of 45,000 tonnes in Dong Thap province, marking the completion of its closed production process: farming - processing - export. This was considered a major turning point for Hung Ca to become the only exporter with a closed production process, which helped control the supply of input sources and the supply of exports.

With its strategic vision, in later years, Hung Ca put into operation its second aquatic processing plant, Van Y, and the third processing plant to better control its closed production process from farming and feed supply to processing and exporting. These three facilities can process up to 450 tonnes of catfish a day.

 

Currently, all well-trimmed pangasius fillets and untrimmed pangasius fillets of Hung Ca are for export. Its products are made according to ISO 9001:2008 international standard system, hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP), and other standards like ISO 22000, ISO 14000, BAP, ISAcert and Global GAP, to meet rising consumer demand. The company now earns US$50 million from exports. Hung Ca now employs 1,500 full-time workers and nearly 3,500 part-time workers.

 

Despite his career achievements, the founder of Hung Ca always thinks he is just a successful farmer. Thus, he always tries his best to acquire new governance knowledge to wisely respond to market changes in the global integration process. In addition, he pays attention to training human resources and carrying out branding and marketing programmes to bring Hung Ca to a wider world.

 

Notably, he and his company always uphold corporate responsibility to workers and social community. Apart from creating a friendly working environment and taking good care of workers, Hung Ca supports Vietnamese heroic mothers, builds charity houses for the poor, and provides relief to disaster victims, flood victims and Agent Orange victims.

 

Song Thanh